Restaurants, sports bars, sports clubs, and recreation facilities, among other establishments (collectively referred to as Venues), have historically invested in the installation of televisions, radios, Internet-enabled devices, and other audio and/or video devices and systems in an attempt to attract Patrons based on the assumptions that the presentation of media content will attract Patrons to the Venue, and/or capture the attention of visiting Patrons, thereby increasing the likelihood of Patron visits, and/or extending the average duration of Patron visits, with the increased Patron visits and/or extended Patron visit duration leading to increased consumption and increased Venue revenues. Venue investments in audio video equipment, media subscriptions, and media libraries have risen dramatically over the course of the past 20 years. Sports bars and sports themed restaurants often have 60 or more televisions, with expensive matrix switches installed to ensure that any television within the Venue can present any program for which the Venue has access via their media subscriptions. Some Venues have invested in expensive content management systems in an effort to simplify the use and/or coordination of the Venue's audio and/or video devices, media sources, and network infrastructure. Many Venues incur significant periodic expenditures attempting to communicate to the public the details and/or scope of their Venue's audio visual systems and/or media subscriptions in hopes that doing so will attract Patrons to their Venue.
Despite these investments in devices, network infrastructure and media subscriptions, and despite these periodic expenditures on marketing efforts, Venues are largely ineffective and inefficient at enabling existing and prospective Patrons to: (a) search for and identify the full range of specific media content an individual Venue intends to present for the upcoming two weeks; (b) search for and identify the full range of specific media content an individual Venue is capable of presenting for the upcoming two weeks; (c) search for and identify Venues that are willing and able to present media content that meets the Patron's interests; (d) create a reservation to enjoy specified media content via a Venue's device where the specified media content will be presented at a specified date and time during the upcoming two weeks; (e) other benefits for Patrons as described herein.
Additionally, despite these investments in devices, network infrastructure and media subscriptions, and despite these periodic expenditures on marketing efforts, Venues are largely ineffective and inefficient at: (a) developing detailed media content presentation schedules for their devices for the upcoming period; (b) automating the presentation of any and all scheduled media content on the respective devices for the upcoming period; (c) making the detailed media content schedules for the upcoming period available for discovery by prospective and existing Patrons; (d) enabling existing and prospective Patrons to interact with the Venue's media content presentation schedules in such a fashion that the Venue can determine which media content is of interest to existing and prospective Patrons; (e) other benefits for Venues as described herein.
Restaurants and bars often have subscriptions to specialized content packages that most individuals would not have at home, such as televised sports packages that are specific to one or more related sports or genres of content, so most Patrons will not have detailed knowledge of the content options available at a Venue without inquiring with the Venue directly. Therefore, it is also highly unlikely that a Patron will be able to accurately predict which of the unknown content would be appealing in the moment.
In cases where a prospective Patron is at home or out and about and has a specific event, program, or genre of media content in mind, the prospective Patron often doesn't know which Venues in the area are currently presenting or planning to present that content on their devices. The prospective Patron could use a telephone to call individual sports bars and restaurants until the Patron connects with a bar or restaurant staff person who has the time, ability and willingness to investigate whether the Venue's content subscriptions and devices are capable of supporting, and available to present the Patron's requested event, program, or genre of media content, and rely on that Venue representative to make a note regarding the Patron's requested program content and the Venue representative's agreement with the Patron to present the requested program content if and when the requesting Patron arrives at the Venue, and hope that all other Venue staff will read and be willing and able to honor the note, but that's an inefficient and ineffective process for both the prospective Patron and the Venue staff. The prospective Patron could also visit each Venue until he identifies a Venue that is capable of, and willing to present the content in which he is interested, and request that the Venue agree to present the content when it is broadcasted, streamed, or otherwise made available, and either stay at the Venue until the content is presented, or leave the Venue and return to the Venue on the date and at the time at which the content is due to be presented, and hope that the Venue representatives present at the Venue on that date and at that time are willing and able to honor the agreement to present the requested media content, but that's inefficient and ineffective as well. As a result, the prospective Patron often ends up doing something else. Ergo, the prospective Patron is not as happy, and a sports bar or restaurant in the area loses the prospective Patron's business.
Despite the fact that a sports bar might have 60 or more televisions, each of which could present one of several hundred simultaneously airing programs, there is no internet or telephone-based system that enables existing and prospective Patrons of restaurants and sports bars to search for a television program by genre, name, date, time and location such that the prospective Patron can reliably plan to view one or more television programs at a particular restaurant or sports bar.
Generally speaking, sports bars have multiple media sources, which may include a combination of cable, satellite, and/or Internet sources. Each media source can generally support the presentation of one program at a time, so if there are 8 media sources, there can be a maximum of 8 concurrent television programs presented across the sports bar's televisions. Many sports bars have in excess of 50 televisions. Channel changing and media-source-to-television mapping is generally performed manually and usually in real time. There are no records captured regarding the sports bar's planned program schedule, actual programs presented, the number of Patrons watching a specific program, food and beverage consumption by program, or Patron-specific data, including Patrons' preferences regarding program content, beverage choice, food choice, price elasticity, etc.
In most cases, the Venue's staff decides which programs are shown on a Venue's televisions. There are several problems with this approach. The public as a whole is not attending a specific sports bar, but rather individuals are attending a specific sports bar, and individuals have individual interests and preferences that differ widely from the public taken as a whole. If sports bars give their Patrons the ability to choose between all of the media content available from the sports bar's media subscriptions, Patrons will likely choose different programming than sports bar staff. Enabling Patrons to select the programming increases the likelihood that the Patron will be engaged by the programming, stay at the Venue longer, consume more of the Venue's product offerings, and have a better experience. There are two main barriers that Patrons must overcome before they ask for a change of media content.
The first, and most significant barrier, is a knowledge gap. The majority of Patrons don't know which media content is available, so they don't know what they can ask for. Venues do not offer their Patrons a media content menu detailing the broad array of media content offerings that could be made available via the Venue's media sources and presentation devices at any given moment. It would be much easier for the Venue to satisfy the Patron's media content appetite if the Venue could provide Patrons with a menu of all the current and upcoming media content that the Venue can offer.
In addition, most Patrons do not have the same media subscription packages that are carried by a restaurant. Also, a Patron's media content appetite is sensitive to the Patron's mood, the Patron's time availability, the nature of the Patron's visit, and other factors that cannot reasonably be predicted by the Venue's staff. Because most Patrons don't know their options, they take the path of least resistance and watch the programs the restaurant's staff chose. If a Patron isn't all that interested in those programs, he/she is less engaged, leaves sooner, and consumes less.
The second barrier is the avoidance of social debt. Individuals are generally hesitant to incur the social debt associated with asking restaurant staff to perform tasks without compensation and/or outside the scope of the staff's generally defined duties. Asking restaurant staff to search for content or change the channel takes the staff away from their clearly defined duties, exposes the requesting Patron to possible scorn or ridicule by other Patrons and staff, and has the potential to upset other Patrons. Not surprisingly, most Patrons won't ask for a change of television programming even if they know the specific program and channel they want to watch. This is especially true for female Patrons. This is costing restaurants and bars money. For regular Patrons, the social debt issue isn't all that significant, but for new or infrequent Patrons, social debt is a real issue. And it's the preferences of new and infrequent Patrons that Venue staff are least likely to know, and most important to satisfy, as those Patrons are the least comfortable. Getting those Patrons engaged and comfortable will tend to increase the length of their stay and the quantity of their consumption.
Venue owners invest in specialized employee training efforts to ensure that some Venue employees are available to operate the Venue's complex content management system. Employee turnover in the restaurant industry is relatively high, as is absenteeism. The complexity of the content management systems combined with employee turnover and absenteeism cause restaurants to incur unreasonably high costs, while the training efforts simultaneously fail to address the issues of the Patron's knowledge gap and the Patron's preference to avoid social debt.
Variety is the spice of life. It's also very effective at keeping Patrons engaged and increasing restaurant revenues. Currently, changing channels frequently in an effort to show a wide variety of programs is a time consuming, challenging process that's difficult to coordinate. By enabling restaurant staff to see an entire day's worth of media programming, build and view schedules for individual presentation devices, view schedules for all of the Venue's devices in a single chart, and filter the available content by type, genre, sport, team, league, and live events vs pre-recorded, and by automating the media source tuning management, network routing management, and device input management based on the Venue's media presentation schedules, the systems and methods disclosed herein make it easy for restaurant staff to maximize the allocation of Patron-desired media content presented on the Venue's devices, thereby enabling the Venue to deliver a much broader array of media content via the same media presentation devices, and enabling the Venue to satisfy a much broader selection of Patrons' media content interests.
Although system's exist in the area of providing media content to Patrons at a Venue, those systems have limitations. For example, current cable television and satellite programming provider systems do not allow non-subscribers or unrelated third parties to schedule programs, nor do these systems allow unrelated third parties to view and filter the future program schedules for collections or cross-sections of their subscribers. Imagine a Patron has identified three local Venues to which the Patron is considering visiting, and each Venue has a collection of media subscriptions and services. There is currently no single system available that: (a) allows the Patron to view what media content each of the three Venues is planning to present on a specified future date and at a specified time; (b) allows the Patron to identify which of the Venues has a media content subscription package that includes a specific upcoming program; (c) allows the Patron to identify which of the Venues has a media content subscription package that includes a specific upcoming program and has unclaimed media presentation capacity to allow him to enjoy the specified program without interfering with the Venue's previously scheduled media content presentation plans; (d) allows the Patron to request the presentation of a specific program on a Venue's presentation device; (e) automatically schedules the requested media content to be presented on a specific device and provides the Patron with a confirmation that the content has been scheduled and will be presented on a specific device at the specified Venue at a specified time on a specified date.
There exist restaurant reservation systems with which Patrons can reserve a table at a restaurant, securing a time and location for a meal. However, such systems are limited as Patrons cannot use these systems to schedule the presentation of media content to coincide and co-locate with their table reservation. Nor do there exist content management systems that are configured to integrate with reservation systems.
There exist theater ticket systems with which a Patron can reserve a ticket to watch a movie on a specified date, and at a specified time and location. However, these systems have limited use and functionality as further described herein. A Patron can only select from the list of shows and show times that the theater has scheduled and published. The Patron cannot search a list of available shows that, though available, have not been scheduled for presentation by the theater, and subsequently submit a request for the unscheduled content and receive an automated response including a reservation for the presentation of the requested content. A large theater might have ten or more individual viewing rooms, with each viewing room presenting five to eight movies each day, for a maximum total of perhaps 100 movies per day. By contrast, a large spots bar might have 60 or more televisions, with each television capable of showing twenty television programs per day, for a maximum total of perhaps 1000 television programs per day. The theater reservation (ticket) generally allows the Patron to enter one viewing room for the duration of a single movie presentation, and individual movies are generally presented in closed viewing rooms, thereby precluding theater patrons from using a single reservation to watch multiple movies concurrently. By contrast, a Patron of a sports bar may enjoy media content presented on a variety of audio and video devices concurrently. The theater ticket is generally not transferrable to allow the Patron to watch a different movie being aired at the same time, and the theater reservation (ticket) is for a specified beginning and end time, not for an open ended ‘visit’. By contrast, a Patron who visits a restaurant to eat dinner might become interested in a baseball game being presented on one video device and, having reached the conclusion of the baseball game, or having become disinterested in the baseball game, subsequently decide to focus attention on a golf match being presented on a different video device. Or the restaurant Patron might opt to enjoy both the baseball game and the golf match concurrently. A theater reservation (ticket) does not allow the Patron to reserve a showing of the 3rd and 4th hour of a 4-hour program, such as a golf match, leaving the presentation hardware (a viewing room and associated projection equipment in the case of a theater), free to be used by other Patrons for the beginning two hours of the program. By contrast, it is reasonable for a Patron to arrange with a restaurant to arrive at the restaurant with the express intent of watching the final two hours of a golf match, and for the restaurant to present other content to other Patrons using the same television during the first two hours of the golf match. A theater ticket doesn't generally afford the theater the option of changing the content to appease other Patrons if the ticket holder fails to appear at the Venue in accordance with the reservation agreement. By contrast, the reservation system described herein allows the restaurant to establish general reservation rules (for example, the Patron must arrive 10 minutes before show time, or be present when the show starts, or arrive within the first 10 minutes of the show's airing), or specific rules for specific programs (for example, Patrons might be allowed to arrive within the first hour of any program that is scheduled to last more than 3 hours.) Patrons arriving 40 minutes into the showing of a 3-hour movie at a theater are considered disruptive to other moviegoers. Patrons arriving 40 minutes into the showing of a 3-hour sports broadcast at a sports bar are de rigueur.
There exist content management systems, some of which allow restaurant staff to change channels on televisions via a network, thereby eliminating the need for remote controls. These systems do not, however, allow restaurant staff and outside Patrons to schedule extended periods worth of television programs on every television for future viewing, nor do they associate television reservations with individual Patrons and integrate with other systems such as table reservation systems.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented. A non-exhaustive list of the issues addressed by the exemplary embodiments of the invention disclosed herein are as follows:                1. For organizations whose business model relies on the use of multiple presentation devices fed by multiple media sources to satisfy their Patrons' media content interests, there is no commercially available solution that enables the organization to:        (a) schedule media content for multiple presentation devices fed by multiple media sources and be able to maintain, update and share the media presentation schedule(s) internally;        (b) make the media presentation schedule(s) discoverable and searchable by the public via an Internet browser, software system, mobile device or app;        (c) automate the issuance of tuning instructions to multiple media sources based on a single consolidated media presentation schedule or collection of media presentation schedules;        (d) capture and respond to media presentation requests submitted by prospective and/or current Patrons, automatically updating the consolidated media presentation schedule visible to Venue staff and current and prospective Patrons;        (e) collect and report on current and/or prospective Patrons' media content interests, thereby supporting proactive media scheduling and advertising, and proactive interactions with current and prospective Patrons;        (f) relate Patrons' program interests to point-of-sale records, thereby supporting analyses of food and beverage consumption as related to media content, the effectiveness of advertising as it relates to specific media content, market penetration by product by media content, etc.        (g) review the Venue's upcoming media presentation schedules to accurately predict patronage highs and lows, accurately plan food and beverage inventories, and proactively schedule special offers to lure Patrons during predicted periods of low patronage;        2. For Patrons whose interests include enjoying audio and/or video media and/or socializing while audio and/or video media are being presented, there is no commercially available solution that enables the Patron to:        (a) search, sort and/or filter an electronic program guide/interactive program guide to identify media content programming that matches the Patron's interests, and identify the date and time the media content will be presented, and match that information with the location of Venue(s) that have scheduled to present the specific media content or have the ability to present the specific media content, based on the Venue's operating hours, media presentation schedules, audio/video network configuration(s), presentation device availability, and media subscriptions;        (b) submit an electronic request for the presentation of specified media content and receive an automated confirmation and associated reservation, or a rejection from the selected Venue;        (c) use their mobile device while in a Venue to request and achieve a change of media content being presented via the Venue's presentation devices;        (d) coordinate their visit to a Venue with other Patrons, including reserving seating, scheduling media presentations on the Venue's presentation devices, and coordinating invitations, acceptances, rejections, etc.;        (e) receive coordinated alerts, updates, and offers from Venues, content providers, teams, leagues, the beverage industry, and other related parties based on the Patron's stated preferences and historical behaviors;        (f) search for and identify a Venue or list of Venues that have scheduled to present specific media content or have the ability to present specific media content, and that simultaneously offer specific food and/or beverage options that meet the Patron's interests, i.e. specific beer on draft, specific beer in a bottle, type of beer (IPA, stout, pilsner, etc.), beer price, special pricing, special beverage offers, vegetarian food options, barbecue, etc.        3. For the beverage industry, there is no solution that enables the industry to:        (a) analyze directly, and in real time, the relationships between programming content, user consumption, pricing, special offers, location, Patrons' media content preferences and historical behavior, advertising, and other factors;        (b) analyze the relationships between a selected Patron's social network status, media content consumption in a specified Venue or Venues, and beverage consumption;        (c) analyze network effects involving their beverages;        (d) analyze the effectiveness of their sponsorship arrangements with, and advertising campaigns related to specific sports, teams, leagues, market segments, locations, geographic regions, and Venues.        4. For teams, there is no commercially available solution that enables teams to:        (a) get more detailed information regarding people who visit sports bars and/or restaurants with the express intent of enjoying media content related to their team, league and/or sport;        (b) analyze the effectiveness of their sponsor relationships with the beverage industry;        (c) identify, in advance, Venues at which large numbers of their fans or their competition's fans plan to enjoy media content that relates to their team, league and/or sport, thereby enabling teams to proactively engage Venues and Patrons.        5. For television networks and other media content providers, there is no product that enables television networks and media content providers to:        (a) analyze directly, and in real time, the relationships between programming content, user consumption, pricing, special offers, location, geographic region, Patron content preferences and historical behavior, advertising, and other factors;        (b) analyze the relationships between a selected Patron's social network status, media content consumption in a specified Venue or Venues, and consumption of advertised products and services;        (c) analyze network effects related to advertisements;        (d) analyze the effectiveness of advertising campaigns related to specific sports, teams, leagues, and market segments.        6. For content carriers (for example, DirectTV, Comcast, etc.), there is currently no product or solution that enables content carriers to:        (a) obtain and analyze details regarding Venues' Patrons' media content requests and populations served;        (b) obtain and analyze details regarding which Venues intend to show which television content up to two weeks prior to the airing of the content.        
The systems and methods disclosed herein address each of the above issues and other considerations. The details of one or more implementations are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.